The Raiders don’t have another pure point guard, and Sargent opted to give a bigger lineup a try against Cleveland State on Sunday, starting 6-foot-8 Brandon Noel, 6-7 Michael Imariagbe and 6-6 Jack Doumbia on the front line.
Though it didn’t result in a win, the experiment wasn’t wasted.
Noel reached his average of 20 points, while Doumbia had 19 to bring his December average to 18.0.
After scoring just 12 points in his previous five games, Imariagbe scored nine and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds in 22 minutes.
“I thought he really answered the bell,” Sargent said of the Houston Christian transfer. “He’s willing and more than able, and he can bring more of a toughness and make some of those winning plays in the paint we desperately need.”
The three “bigs” may not start together again, but it’s a combination that could work in spurts against taller foes.
“He just hit a rough patch of foul trouble in Myrtle Beach, then a few injuries, and he just kind of hit a little bit of a rut,” Sargent said of Imariagbe. “I’m hopeful he can continue to give us good minutes, meaningful minutes, because we desperately need what he brings to the table.”
The Raiders, though, probably can’t expect to get their season back on the rails without addressing some chemistry issues.
Norris said after an 80-70 home loss on Dec. 18 to Youngstown State: “Individually, I thought we all weren’t there. (We were) too into our own things, too worried about our own stats.”
Sargent agreed, stating there was “an undercurrent on the team I didn’t like.”
He used terms like disjointed and a lack of connectivity.
Asked after a third straight loss at Cleveland State whether he saw a more cohesive group, he said bluntly, “No, I didn’t.”
He added: “I think we competed together, and I think there’s a big element to Keaton being out. He really connects everybody. (But) I still think we have a long ways to go in terms of having an edge about Wright State, a belief about Wright State that we can win without the ball going in the hole. We can dictate and defend and make hustle plays, and we can win an ugly game.”
The Raiders are 43-37 overall and 24-20 in the Horizon League in the last two-plus seasons. And they’ve won only three times while scoring 75 points or fewer.
Ugly games don’t usually go their way.
“We need to win. Learning is one thing, but winning is what this team needs. We need confidence,” Sargent said.
“I thought we had it against Marshall (a hard-fought 88-79 victory on Dec. 11). I thought we’d turned a corner. But we took four steps backward in terms of our team DNA and mindset. And now we’re still collecting the pieces.”
But he added: “We’ll get it, and when we get it back, we need to keep it. I’m confident we’ll do that.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Green Bay at Wright State, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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